During the 1840's there were some very fine
artillery commanders in the U.S. Army. They were: Captain
Samuel Ringgold, Captain Randolph Ridgely, and Lieutenant
Braxton Bragg. There were others but these were the top guns
as it were. There was an extreme amount of competition
between all of these artillery over-achievers. There was
competition concerning every facet of training and parades.
All of the artillery officers were very good,
probably the best of the three arms of the military. There
weren't many engineers, and there were quite a few infantry
and dragoon officers, but artillery was considered the best,
by most of the West Point graduates. All of the above
mentioned names were known through out the army. All were
known in different ways, but all were given considerable
respect.
When the army was consolidated for possibly the
first time since maybe ever but at least since the War of
1812, at Corpus Christi, there was a great deal of drill and
training. Ridgely and Ringgold were very well liked by their
men, both were incredibly capable. Bragg on the other hand,
was hated by his men. Nothing satisfied him, not one thing!
His men trained day and night. He trained them
when they were exhausted, on bad days as well as good days.
He trained them on Sundays, which brought out some wrath from
superiors. His troops couldn't polish the leather or brass
well enough to satisfy him. They could never unlimber quick
enough. They could never hit the target well enough or enough
times in a given amount of time.
One night, as the battery was relaxing, one of
Bragg's men rolled a lit shell under Bragg's bunk in an
attempt to frag their commander. The fuse burned out, but not
without Bragg noticing it. He called his men together, and
decided that if they couldn't light a simple fuse then they
needed more training, and so they trained the rest of the
night.
None of his commanders liked him personally. He
was never endearing to anyone, and hated most. Had a special
dislike for P.G.T. Beauregard, both were from the same state,
I believe Louisiana. When Scott moved to Mexico to replace
Taylor following the Battle of Monterrey, most of Taylor's
men were sent to Scott's army. Strangely enough, Scott did
not want Bragg and left him with Taylor. Neither did he want
Davis, and there was definitely some hard feelings between
Taylor and Davis. So both remained with Taylor's depleted
army.
Taylor's army was caught in a depleted way by
Santa Anna's army near Buena Vista. Santa Anna had more than
a three to one advantage over Taylor. Taylor placed himself
on a plateau with really no means of retreat, nearly 4,000
men. Santa Anna had nearly 20,000. In the first attack, Santa
Anna was determined to find out where Taylor's artillery was
at. He thought it was in the centre. He had no realization
that the flying artillery could move to any portion of the
battle very quickly, although many generals had already found
that out at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Matamoros, and
Monterrey. To make a long story short. Every attack that
Santa Anna made, he found Bragg, Bragg's artillery, and a
hard hitting infantry support from Mississippi commanded by
Jeff Davis.
The Battle of Buena Vista propelled Taylor into
the President's mansion. It made both Bragg and Davis icons
in the military.